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189
The "improved means" are not indicated. Nothing probably
would be more conducive to the end in view than the imposition of
a statutory obhgation on the Sanitary Authority to register all
tenement houses "occupied by members of more than one
family." Such a step might be taken with advantage in the
interests of the working classes, but it is one which, in all
probability, they would resent, and which, with their increased
political power, they would be able to defeat. Universality of
application, however, might take the sting out of " registration."
Commendation is bestowed on the authorities of Hackney and
Chelsea for having made Begulations. But at Hackney, we are
told, faulty owners and occupiers are threatened with the registration
of their houses. The regulations are spoken of as if they were
penal, and it is said that the people "migrate" rather than submit
to them, so that the effect of registration is to drive the poor out
of the parish to overcrowd other districts where regulations are
not in force. This would not be the case if registration were
general. But registration can never become general—I will not say
popular—so long as it is held over people in terrorem. At Chelsea,
we are told there is "practically no overcrowding" as a result of the
regulations—a statement to be taken with due reservations, seeing
that "great numbers of the houses "in that parish are'' very small,
and that in 1881 there were 7.6 persons, on an average, to each
house as compared with 7.8 in the Metropolis generally. The
Commissioners appear to be under the impression that inspection
and sanitary improvement are neglected in parishes where Begulations
are not in force. But this is not so, and it may be truly
said, referring without offence, to the only case offered for
comparison, that the amount of inspection and sanitary work
described as having been carried out in respect of "registered
houses" in Chelsea is small, by comparison with the work of a
similar character done in some other Metropolitan parishes where
the section is not in operation.
Leeds, among provincial towns, is cited as a place where
"the regulations seem to be worked with much energy, 1,235
visits of inspection having been made" in one year, and "the